Now that Google has added multi-user support, the ability to set reminders, and other key functionality to the Google Home, there's not much to complain about. One remaining issue was that you could only say one command at a time. If you wanted to turn off the lights and play something on your TV, you would have to say "turn off the lights," wait for the Home to respond, and then follow up with the casting command.

Google has now quietly addressed this, as you can now ask your Home to do two things at once. For example, you can say, "Turn on the TV and give me the weather forecast" or "Give me the weather forecast and tell me what’s on my calendar." You can also use it to switch two different lights at once, with something like "turn off my lamp and turn on my light strip." As far as I can tell, three or more commands in a row do not work.

This functionality seems to still be missing from Assistant on phones. When I asked my phone to turn off my lamp and give me the weather, it linked me to a weather app on the Play Store. Hopefully, that will be fixed soon.

On a related note... Google talks about how the Assistant works with casual conversation, you don't have to use specific phrasing, etc.... But it doesn't really seem to conversational to have to keep saying "Hey Google" every time you have a follow up question....

"Hey Google, where's the nearest ----?" "Hey Google how far away is that?" "Hey Google how long would it take to drive there?"

I'd like to see Google set it up so after the Assistant answers your query, it listens in for a moment or two. That way you don't have to re-summon the Assistant. And if you're done, you just don't say anything and it goes back into always listening mode waiting for the next "Hey Google" summons...

Patrick Kajirian

This. Heck, I'd even settle for stringing a follow-up command by immediately saying "and Google" followed by the command. It'd feel much more natural than having to robotically repeat the trigger phrase.

misc

I believe they announced that's coming. No idea when, though.

demarcmj

Link?

makapav

Also Hey Google is a lot more tedious than Alexa or Siri.

demarcmj

"Hey Google" and "Alexa" are the same number of syllables.

Jason Pagliaro

I don't know the actual linguistic term for it but "Okay Google" and "Hey Google" are what I'll call muddy phrases. They're easy to get lazy with and speak them less clearly. It makes them more difficult to say. "Computer" or "Alexa" or "Hey Siri" or "Hey Cortana" are much cleaner and less awkward to say.

makapav

> are what I'll call muddy phrases. They're easy to get lazy with and speak them less clearly

You nailed it. That's exactly what I was thinking. The double g's are very easy to make the middle very unclear.

You'd be surprised at what it will respond to - we spent 20 minutes a few months ago - descending more and more into baby talk to see where the point was at which the sounds we were making no longer sounded enough like "OK Google" to trigger it. the G in the middle is absolutely not necessary - neither is the K in OK. "oh ay ooo uhle" in the same room as the unit will activate ours. But for activating from far away it does require "Google" to be said pretty clear.

Tedious indeed. And the Google experience is, as usual even more half-baked than their competitors. (Which is saying a lot in the era of foisting betas on your actual customers.)
Returned mine after almost a month of frustrations. Tons of things that didn’t work. I HATE my Echo and Alexa is a mind-numbingly irritating interface with massive flaws but still light years better than the horrifyingly incomplete, kludgey, and unpleasant experience of Google Home. Saying “Hey Google” - a marble-mouthed experience to begin with, was just the topper to a long list of massive oversights and flaws.

makapav

> marble-mouthed experience

This is where we are slaves to a corporation's branding enforcement. It is typically not The Google Way but I'd be interested to know what a-hole is plying it in the company.

Carpediem06

Haha, Google wants u saying Google and peoples hearing Google as many times as u can say Google lol

Adam Lopresto

I've wanted exactly that, too. In addition to timing out after a short amount of silence, you could also stop it listening with a quick "Thanks" or "Thank you". Makes the whole interaction flow naturally.

philnolan3d

I'd love if I can say "play The Good Place season 2 Episode 4 on Netflix". Currently it can't handle season or episode numbers, you can just say the name of the show and it will play the next one you haven't seen.

AfrodanJ

I tried this once and it worked, not sure if it still works. Can't say I've used the command since

Josh Flowers

Just recently discovered this show. Excellent. Reminds me of the French book Huis Clos, basically (spoiler alert) Hell is Other People.

izzyb412

This wouldn't have been a spoiler if you hadn't have said it was a spoiler.

andy_o

The twists aren't only in the plot, also in your perception of the show. I was like "holy shit, I didn't think it was this type of show". First episode was "cute", but by the end of the first season it was something completely different.

makapav

Also profiles. On Shield TV it gets stuck at the profile selection.

Chris

This. And also wish it worked with Plex.

DanSan

This times a million. I have everything on my plex server and its the only thing left i need them to add in

JSo

I would love this. I also have an Alexa speaker and the Plex commands are pretty cool.

I'm sure it will at some point. Plex developers are really good about the latest and greatest Google features. Plex already works with Assistant on Android TV despite almost all Android TV devices not having Assistant yet.

Jon Verstraete

There is currently only one season of The Good Place available on Netflix.

andy_o

Overseas they get episode-by-episode releases of many U.S. shows unavailable in the U.S. American media companies being what they are, want to make it more difficult and/or more expensive for Americans to view their content.

Jon Verstraete

Learn something every day. Thank you! Have a good weekend!

DynamikD

So I have to wait for them to release the entire second season here in the U.S?

andy_o

Yeah cause they're being aired by another network primarily. In this case it's NBC though so it's free over-the-air you can catch with basically any TV and an antenna.

Netflix US doesn't even release the seasons when they're done, they usually have to wait until right before the next season starts.

Is there any way to speak to my Google Home and not have my phone freak out? They both understand "Hey Google".

I'd also like it if they'd go back to multiple sounds for "what does an (animal) say". My main use for a Google Home is entertaining my kids and they don't really want to hear the same dog bark every time. Can you guys help me out with some tickets? What's weird is they DO have different dog sounds. Ask your phone and ask your Google Home and type it into your computer. It's just you only get one at a time, and then you get that one repeatedly per device.

Fabrizio Pullarà

Hey Google only triggers home and not the phone (for now), you could use that to address them separately

For some users, Hey Google was also enabled on their phones as well, so the separation between Hey and OK isn't possible anymore. We covered it a while back.

Fabrizio Pullarà

I was, in fact, referring to what I read on AP about it, I remember reading it was going to be enabled but I didn't know it was already live.. well, that sucks I guess, especially since they removed the "Only when charging" voice recognition option, that would've been handy when driving

whispy_snippet

Not working on my Australian Google Home..

clearlyyourewrong

You have to remove it from the crocodile's stomach first and also make sure no spiders have nested beneath the grille.

Just because he's a creep doesn't make that particular point any less valid.

Jason Pagliaro

Apparently people aren't allowed to think there's a better way of doing things.

snowglyder

Nice to see this getting easier. I'd like to setup shortcuts in Google Home app that runs multiple Home commands. Maybe I could stop using Stringify and get functions that Stringify and IFTTT can't even do. For instance, telling Google to turn off shield will put my Nvidia Shield TV to sleep, and power off the TV. But I can't find a way to string that command, as it's Google Home/Assistant only. But I'd like to create a shortcut and tie it to "turn off shield" and "turn on fan".

Dove

Is there a way to stop this....? I ask my phone "what's today's weather?" Or anything else while I say, my bedroom, which is on the other side of the house the Google home mini blares out the response from 50' away waking up everyone else. Anything I ask my phone, even when the mini can't hear me, it responds instead of my phone.

andy_o

There's no way to do that, and I've been annoyed that my phone even turns on and fully unlocks (and then cancels itself, but leaving the phone on and unlocked) when the Home mini in the room is responding anyway.

I've been thinking though, at least in my case, it's not that big a deal, cause since I got a Home mini in every environment (small apartment, and the Walmart deal made it extremely easy), and I can just disable always-listening Assistant on the phone. If I wanna use the phone I can just use the gesture cause I got the Pixel 2 XL. The only other scenario where I would want hands-free OK Google would be in the car, and Assistant already allows for that without having to reenable manually.

In any case, this stuff has been a problem for years (several devices turning on at the same time) and was even a problem with Wear and Google phones, the phone would turn on even if you were talking to your watch. I don't see Google fixing it any time soon.

Dove

I seriously hate to compare because I got this "knowing" in my mind it would be an upgrade to Alexa, which I have all over my home and in my car. They don't have a problem and know exactly which one I'm talking to even if 2 can hear me at the same time. I also think its ridiculous that assistant won't let me play individual songs in my library that I own unless I pay $10 a month.

kcslimmers

A-gree. But for now I do it by manually starting the assistant on my phone. I have a Pixel and I just have to hold the home/center/circle button for a second to activate assistant. Then, it responds back and does my commands from my phone

Doonhamer

Now if only they could get it to play a playlist shuffled in one command rather than 3

kcslimmers

I was able to do this just yesterday.
"Hey Google, play my Christmas playlist on shuffle" is how I think I said it. She responded shed play it "shuffled", and I chuckled 😃

I meant - taking Android app as an example - Home App > Settings > More > Calendar can you not see the G Suite Calendar in there? Or at least share your G Suite Calendar with your personal account so it will appear in there?

No, I checked there, too. It says it can't access G Suite calendars yet. And I cant try your second suggestion, because my G Suite account is the main one I use for everything. I don't have a personal Gmail account as my Google Home account.

The less said about Allo/Assistant the better - I have a "daily fact subscription" that has a habit of sending me a daily fact that says "obviously" or "of course" but no fact.....

mightymikek

ah thank god!

My fiancee and I have been annoyed with the fact we had to say "ok google turn off the lights" wait "ok google turn on the tv". First world problems but man this is awesome.

Alexis Gonzalez

You can also setup a shortcut that does both with one command. For instance I say "I'm home" and my TV and lamp turns on.

Sliquid_4_U

I know Google wants to permanently burn the word Google onto everyone's brain but I really wish they would add additional hot words with some of those options being just one word like Alexa for example.

Sonic Sunglasses

This makes the broadcast function so much more useful.

clearlyyourewrong

Word. "Hey Google, play baby lullabies in the nursery and broadcast everyone shut the fuck up I'm trying to put the baby to sleep you animals."